Ensuring Minority Success in Corporate Management

To be a corporate executive in America is to achieve a universally recognized measure of personal and professional success. The high income, privilege, prestige, and authority enjoyed by most corporate executives all attest to "making it." That is why the advancement of racial and ethnic minorities into the executive suite is one of the key barometers of the nation's progress toward full equality of opportunity. But the quest for equal opportunity in corporate management has been difficult and frustrating. Black, Hispanic, and Asian men and women are rarely found among those who run or significantly influence the direction of American corporations. The wide gap between the expectation and the reality is a continuing topic of interest to business leaders and racial and ethnic minorities, as well as to scholars of the business scene. This book edited by Thompson and DiTomaso contributes significantly to our understanding of this problem, and, most importantly, provides useful guidelines on what to do about it. Interest in the diversity of corporate management comes at a time of unprecendented challenge to United States success in the world economy. American business must now compete against aggressive producers and fi nanciers in Western Europe and Japan. More competition also has emerged from some of the rapidly developing countries in Latin America and the Pacific Rim. Our ability to design, manufacture, sell, and export goods and services in a global marketplace will increasingly determine our standard of living and prominence on the world stage.

Springer Book Archives

I. Introduction.- 1 Minority Success in Corporate Management.- II. Just How Far Have We Come?.- 2 Sources of Minority Underrepresentation in Corporate Employment.- 3 Employment Prospects for Minority Women.- 4 Minority and Nonminority MBA Progress in Business.- 5 Racism and Sexism in Corporate America: Still Not Color- or Gender-Blind in the 1980s.- 6 The Changing Agenda: New Era, New Perspectives.- III. Defining The Critical Issues: Problems And Concerns.- 7 Corporate Perspectives on the Advancement of Minority Managers.- 8 A Summary of Small-Group Discussions on the Advancement of Minority Managers: Perspectives of Academics and Experienced Managers.- 9 Perspectives of Current and Recent MBA Students on Advancement in Management Careers.- IV. Finding Solutions: Coming To Grips With The Issues.- 10 Making It in the Corporation: Retrospectives of Successful Minority Managers.- 11 Corporate Programs for Ensuring Minority Advancement.- 12 An Overview of Corporate Policies and Practices.- V. Plans For Action: Where Do We Go From Here?.- 13 The Corporate Challenge.- 14 Ensuring Minority Achievement in Corporations: The Importance of Structural Theory and Structural Change.- 15 Action Steps for Corporations and Graduate Schools of Business.- 16 Toward the Benefits of Multicultural Management.